I pressed the record button as Ace sat across from me, signaling that we were on the record and couldn’t chat about whatever we’
d had in the past. Instead, I dove right into why we were there. “Can you tell me what happened yesterday at the café?”
Ace rubbed the back of his neck, looking embarrassed. “I was just in the right place at the right time. I went out biking, and I stopped for a late lunch. While I was eating, I was looking out the window, and I just noticed this guy. He was acting strangely. Looking around like he was trying to figure out who was watching him. Fidgeting with something in his pocket. So I watched him come into the café, and he decided to rob the place.”
“What did you do when you saw that he had a gun?” I asked.
“As you know, I’m former military, so my first instinct was to analyze the guy. He wasn’t really paying attention to his surroundings, and he didn’t look too comfortable with the gun. So I was pretty sure I could sneak up behind him and disarm him without anyone getting hurt.” He shrugged. “I’m not a hero, though. I was just in the right place at the right time.”
I nodded. I asked him a few more questions about the incident. At least the angle was pretty obvious on this one. Everyone liked a feel-good story about military servicemen. Especially about men like Ace who had served in the military for as long as he had.
I knew I should ask him what he was doing in Boston. It certainly seemed like he was living here, not just staying with a friend. Did that mean he was out of the military for good? What had happened?
But I didn’t want to start asking those sorts of questions. I wanted to stay focused on now. I wanted to stay focused on the previous day’s events and not think about what his moving to Boston long-term could mean for me.
It was enough that as he talked nonchalantly about disarming the would-be thief; I just couldn’t help thinking about how brave he was. How strong he was. How even though he’d retired from the SEALs, apparently, he still wanted to help other people and keep them safe.
Those were dangerous thoughts to have.
Finally, I had enough information for the story, and I reached forward to turn off the recorder. I sat back for a moment. I had told myself I wasn’t going to ask this question, but the curiosity was killing me. “Why did you ask for me to interview you?”
Ace studied me for a moment and then shrugged, a slow smile spreading across his face. “I was getting a bit of a complex since you wouldn’t agree to see me,” he said teasingly. “So I found a window of opportunity.”
I shook my head and packed my things away. Then I got up. “Don’t go looking for trouble just so you can see me,” I told him, only half-joking.
Ace stood up as well. “If you’d just talk to me, then I wouldn’t have to,” he said seriously. “I’m not asking you for anything big. Just let’s maybe grab a drink. Catch up.”
“Like I said, I’m really busy,” I told him.
“But not so busy that you couldn’t schedule an interview with me for this afternoon,” Ace pointed out. “What were you going to do otherwise?”
“There would have been another interview, with someone else,” I said, even though that was kind of a lie. I’d been hoping to get Ava and I both to the salon, actually. We both could use a trim.
“Tina told me you were only working freelance for the Globe now,” Ace said, cocking his head to the side. “Are you busy with some other paper as well? I looked at your bylines online, and they seemed to all be with the Globe.”
I frowned at him, my brow furrowing. He’d looked me up? Why would he do that? I shook my head, deciding not to think too hard about that. Even if he were here in Boston for me, I couldn’t start anything. He wouldn’t want to start anything once he found out about Ava.
For a second, I debated telling him about her, just to get him to stop trying to ask me out. But there was a selfish part of me that didn’t want him to know about her. If he didn’t want to be part of her life, if he didn’t want to have children, then I didn’t want him to know about her. He didn’t deserve to know about her.
“Come on, just one drink, and I promise that the next time I do something heroic, I won’t request you as an interviewer,” Ace said.
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t do stupid shit just to get my attention,” I said, my tone harsher than I’d intended. I turned away before I could see his reaction, walking out the door and moving quickly to my car.
My heart was beating, and my palms were damp as I sat in the driver’s seat and fumbled the key into the ignition. I didn’t know why he got me so flustered like this. Didn’t know why I felt so nervous around him. But hopefully he got the hint: I didn’t want to see him. Hopefully, he’d stop bothering me.
I put my foot on the gas and sped off.
8
Ace
I was still sitting at the kitchen table, staring at my laptop screen, when Stone came stomping in after work. He paused and whistled at the picture of Harper up on the screen. “Who’s the hot black chick?” he asked.
I was about to tell him to fuck off, finding myself strangely bothered by his calling her that, as though Harper was just another woman. There was so much more to her than that. But as I made to close out the window, embarrassed at having been caught looking at Harper’s bio, Stone caught my hand, peering at the screen.
“Oh hey, wait, I recognize her.”
“You do?” I asked in surprise, craning my head to look up at him. We hadn’t talked about where we’d done our service; the guys placing us had recommended that we try to find things in common other than the fact that we’d both killed people for a living. And I didn’t recognize Stone from Kuwait, but there was no reason to think he hadn’t been there. Maybe he’d passed through the base while Harper was there.